4 comments about Globe Trekker: Amsterdam.

1. This is one of the episodes from PBS's Globe Trekker series. This gives a nice over view of Amsterdam with extras of travel advice. The video was shot around August/September, so the footage is of events going on at the time.
   
   Best part about the Blobe Trekker series is not only beautiful video, But also the humor they add to it as well.



2. The film spends about 60% of the film on the gay scene, in fact it says that 40% of the center is not straight, lousy cafe service, crumby markets, raw herring, not sushi, just raw herring deboned and swallowed slime and all, and bycicles and bycicles, and rows and rows of boring looking flats along canals, no wonder the drugs are legal, one probalby needs that to keep from going bonkers, I had planned a trip to Amsterdam based on internet data, but nothing showed all this, I'm from New York this place looks dinky from this film. I want to thank the film makers for saving me a ton of dough,if you want astoner trip go to Morroco,or Turkey or MoBay Jamaica.



3. I've been to Amsterdam and it's a beautiful city. Unfortunately, this item doesn't show the beauty of the place. You'll like it if you're gay, smoke pot, and like staying in flop houses.



4. I know some of the reviewers here have blasted this DVD for not showing the real Amsterdam. Well, I'd agree with that in part. It barely touches the Rijksmuseum, and they acknowledge that the Van Gogh museum was being renovated when it was shot. They never go to Dam Square, you see one shot outside Central Station, and there's zero information on getting around town on anything other than a bike. And my gosh, WHERE WAS ANNE FRANK'S HOUSE?! With that said, however, I loved this DVD. I think Amsterdam is an amazing city. Sure it's beautiful, and sure it has some amazing culture. But what I like so much about the city is its funky uniqueness. There's nowhere else like it on earth! This DVD shows you why. The coffee shops are a fact of life in Amsterdam, and I've always thought travel shows tip-toe around them and the legal marijuana they sell. This one dives right in and shows you an Amsterdam coffee shop. Amsterdam is terribly progressive and is one of the rare cities in the world that doesn't judge human beings based on who they choose to sleep with. So why not show a vibrant gay community and the straights in the city who tolerate and live with them in harmony? There's no other city on EARTH where scenes like that could be found - not even San Francisco. The Red Light District is equally unique to Amsterdam. This DVD takes you there and shows you that, although Amsterdam is quite safe, you've still got to use good judgment in terms of where you go and to whom you speak. Will this DVD be the best you ever see to show you all the tourist spots in Amsterdam? Probably not. But will it give you a flavor for one of the world's most unique cities in a way that's far superior to other travel DVDs? Absolutely. I recommend it highly.

No comments about Great Hotels Season 2 - Episode 17: Park Hyatt at Beaver Creek.

No comments about On Tour... The OCEAN Halifax To Toronto On Canada's Famous Train.

No comments about Great Hotels Season 2 - Episode 14: Little Palm Island.

No comments about The Musical Discovery Series: Seasons.

2 comments about Scotland: A Musical Journey.

1. This DVD is like a jewelry box with a drawer containing jumbles of brightly colored beads, gewgaws, and semi-precious stones. Except it is like a box with two drawers: one with travelogue-ish pictures, the other with unrelated music. There are too-color-saturated moving pictures of scenes from the Scottish countryside, islands, mountains, cities. There are bits and pieces of fairly familiar classical music accompanying them. There is no voice-over narration, no narrative thread, no indication when one, say, leaves the Isle of Skye and begins flying over Staffa, no clue about one's whereabouts except in a very vague sense lent by the sketchy titles to each 'chapter', e.g. 'Flight over Scotland and its Islands to Edinburgh', 'Eilean Donan Castle, Isle of Mull, Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness.' Nothing is specifically identified. Presumably one is simply to respond to beauty or grandeur or quaintness of each scene.
   
   The end result is that this 'Musical Journey' is a hodgepodge and although superficially pleasant to look at or listen to, it makes little sense. I can imagine that someone who has traveled in Scotland can identify many of the sights and remember their own experiences of, say, Blair Castle or Calton Hill. But otherwise it is no more a keepsake than a t-shirt or tartan tie gotten at a Princes Street boutique.
   
   The musical excerpts (but not who is playing them) are identified in the accompanying booklet, and are remarkable for their unrelatedness to the scenes they accompany. Why does the G.R.S. variation (No. 11) from Elgar's 'Enigma Variations' accompany pictures of a Scottish weaving mill except for a connection between its quick tempo and that of sheep running in a field or a loom's shuttle? Why does Handel's 'For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth' from 'Messiah' accompany scenes of Loch Rannoch? Why does an excerpt from Lucia di Lammermoor's Mad Scene underscore scenes of Eilean Donan and Loch Ness, and why does the excerpt end abruptly on an unresolved chord?
   
   This DVD seems to have been patched together visually and musically from other DVDs (or, more likely, VHS tapes) and this explains its budget price. I can imagine it playing quietly in a corner in an upscale doctor's waiting room or in the showroom of a travel agency. I have trouble imagining anyone voluntarily watching it more than once in their own home.
   
   But the pictures, confusing as they are, are nice.
   
   Scott Morrison



2. i bought this despite the other negative review. i'm so glad i did. we went to scotland last year, and viewing this was like getting to revisit our whole trip. i got to see things from all sorts of angles we didn't get to see before. we never got to tour fingal's cave so it was great to get to see it just as though we were there. the skies and clouds and mountain and loch vistas were all breathtakingly beautiful. there was the pristine white lismore lighthouse; the multi-colored buildings lining the water at tobermory; a sailboat in oban harbor; the lovely white and gilt interior of inverary castle...we will watch this over and over.

1 comments about In the City: In Barcelona.

1. This is for us the first DVD we bought from the "In the City" series.
   Yes it's loaded with information, but requires a lot of selecting.
   There are 3 main categories on the DVD which you have to enter one at a time.
   Once entered there are once again a bunch of categories to be entered on at a time.
   Once you do that you can select "play all" categories of that specific topic.
   Still it would be nicer if you could select "play all" (play entire DVD) right at the beginning.
   Great informative DVD but, due to the large amount of selections you have to make, this will be the only DVD from this series we will have.
   Next time we'll buy a DVD where we can sit back and watch while sipping our coffee (or play when we have guests).
   A real shame, as it could have been so much better with a "play all" for the entire DVD option.

2 comments about Eyes on Mars.

1. With the upcoming landings of the 2 Mars Exploration Rovers, I had high hopes that this DVD would provide every drop of information about the rovers I could absorb. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

   This DVD did have a couple nice features, including one with a decent history of Mars exploration and another with expert commentary about the various characteristics of the red planet: dust, water, etc.

   But I really wanted to see a lot of footage of the rovers going thru their paces during testing. I wanted to see the solar panels unfold; how the hazard avoidance system worked; how the camera color filters moved; etc. I also wanted more than just basic information about the entry, decent, and landing system - for example, there is a decent imager that measures horizontal speed. None of these details were covered.

   There is a truly wonderful animation available on the MER website (http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/video/) that shows launch, landing, and roving operations; but this 10 minute animation is rather poor quality in order to make it a reasonable download size. This animation *is* provided in pieces on the DVD along with a neat 'making of' feature, but the animation is not presented as a whole, which is unfortunate.

   All in all, this DVD would probably satisfy (perhaps even overload) the Mars layman, but it is too sparse and disjointed for a Mars enthusiast.




2. As a parent and an educator and some one just generally interested in space exploration, this DVD captures the excitement about Mars as well as all the challenges involved in getting there. So many documentary type DVDs are boring-- but this is not. With Mars so much in the news these days, this DVD helps put it all in context-- far beyond the quick soundbites we see every night on TV. I recommend this for any parent, educator or space enthusiast.

No comments about South African Garratts - Steam Around the World.

No comments about 7 Days ICELAND.